ECAA: We condemn an ‘Act of Terrorism’ Committed by TPLF lead Ethiopian government!

We members of The Ethiopian Communities Council in Australia are outraged, appalled, and anguished by the TPLF recent declaration of war and an act of terrorism perpetrated against the Amhara people in Gonder. The Agazi special TPLF killing squad, armed to its teeth have been killing, torturing, imprisoning, and dislocating the Amhara people and the rest of Ethiopians from their natural dwellings for the last 25 years. The Amhara and other Ethiopians have to do everything to stop this rapacious regime to live in peace, security and prosperity.Protests also spread to Debark and Sanja in Gondar.

We are torn by this great tragedy and join the world wide protest to express our outrage and condemnation of this ferocious act driven by enmity against the Amhara people and their struggle for freedom and justice. We find it very disturbing that before any investigation of these crimes, the TPLF government continues to use vindictive rhetoric of discord and distrust directly on the Amhara especially on the Wolkayit-Tsegede-Humera-Tselemit who defend their Amhara root and their natural habituations.

Historically, Wolkayit-Tsegede & Humera-Tselemit were distinct regions of Northern Gonder since ancient times, in which it was annexed by force into Tigray in 1991 in the form of subjugation. In all historical books, in all ancient maps, in tradition, culture and language, their psychological make up and norms of these people were never been part of Tigray. They were always part and parcel of the Dembeya together with quara, janamora, semen and the rest form North Gonder ethnically identified as Amhara.

During TPLF armed insurgency the group used the above mentioned subjugated areas for military strategy to make a corridor with its host the Sudan. It subdued the people and other resistance movements in the area in its military might. So this TPLF might become a right now after it toppled the military government in grabbing the land and displace the people in the area and start to relocate and settle its own ethic groups Tigrian’s. Although the people in these areas had contributed significantly to topple the military government, sadly TPLF had managed to settle more than three hundred thousands of Tigre farmers in its first stage, and continued settling in these fertile lands of Wolkayit-Tsegede, Humera and Tselemit, and associated areas by replacing the native with the new comers from Tigre and consequently changed the demographic nature of the land.

Following this event, the natives had exerted many efforts to lodge their complaints and objection their demographic change and requesting their national identity to be respected as an Amhara. For that effort the people in the area had set up an 88 committee members and send them to Addis Ababa more than eleven times. Nevertheless, some months ago they were bared to enter the city 35 km away for several days. Subsequently, the government started to fan through its media outlets and characterized the legitimate committee setup as terrorist or has connection with terrorism.

The Ethiopian government spokesperson Getachew Reda accused the committee members of kidnapping, murder and being in possession of arms with an intent of staging terrorist attacks. He also rejected any notion that the clashes was being spearheaded by the Amhara community. Despite Ethiopian human right committee grim report publicizing that in 34 people were murdered 93 were abducted and many has been dislocated from their usual domicile the area by the government and its affiliated clusters.(http://ahrethio.org/wpcontent/ uploads/2016/07/HRCO-141st-Special-Report-English.pdf)

The repressive regime in Addis Ababa has not only condemned the committee (Amhara’s) as guilty as usually it does to other Ethiopians, such as the Oromo’s the Gambelia’s etc. who had peacefully protested for their rights. It is now asserting that Wolkayit-Tsegede, Humera and Tselemit Amhara’s have been collaborating with terrorism and labelled them as “terrorists” trained by its untrustworthy enemy and infiltrated from Eretria. It is clear that the regime in Ethiopia is trying to cripple the peaceful legitimate protest of these Amhara’s for their rights. This is a protest that has now peacefully gone on for more than thirty four years and is opposed to the regime’s gross and illegal mutilation and merge the Wolkayit community and its land into the neighbouring Tigray Regional State. The alleged Wolkayit committee arrest of such elements is expected to buttress the regime’s allegation to discredit the popular and spreading struggle of the Wolkayit committee for their legitimate rights.

Finally, we demand the government authorities who are perpetrators of this heinous crime and those who gave an order of this nature and cause a loss of life expeditiously as possible so that responsible be brought to justice.